History of Flora studies in Ireland

The first Irish flora was published by the Rev. Dr . Caleb Threlkeld (1676-1728), a dissenting cleric and Physician. Threlkeld was a native of Cumberland, and arrived in Dublin in 1713. His remarkable work, titled
Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta also subtitled as:- A Short treatise of Native Plants, especially such as grow spontaneously in the vicinity of Dublin, with their Latin, English and Irish Names: And an abridgment of their Vertues, With Several New Discoveries.

As the sub-title suggests this was no mere herbal or flora, but an opportunity for Dr. Threlkeld to dispense opinions upon “Heathenish Magick", the "Blessings of the English Government" the "confounding" of knowledge by other botanists, the debauchery resulting from "Excess in Liquor" and so forth.
Being pre-Linnaean, Threlkeld's flora contains many unique names created by the author himself, including
Muscus inatus cranio humano – moss growing on a dead man’s skull.

Walter Wade, 1804. Plantae rariores in Hibernia inventae; or habitats of some plants, rather scarce and valuable, found in Ireland; with concise remarks on the properties and uses of many of them.

K. Baily published The Irish flora; comprising the phaenogamous plants and ferns, anonymously in 1833, reprinted in 1846.

T. Allin published the first county flora, with the Flora of Cork in 1883: The flowering plants and ferns of the county Cork. Walter Wade's Dublin flora of 1794 was an ambitious project for which only volume one was printed.

Samuel Stewart and T.H. Corry published A flora of the north-east of Ireland including the Phanerogamia, the Cryptogamia vascularia and the Muscineae in 1888. A 2nd edition was edited by Praeger and Megaw in 1938, and a 3rd edited by Paul Hackney appeared in 1992.

Sylvia ReynoldsThe Alien Flora of Ireland
Published in 2002,
covers the 920 alien plant species and hybrids found in Ireland since the beginning of
the 19th century. This catalogue presents information on the status, first or earliest
records, locations and literature records of all these taxa.

Paul Green'sFlora of County Waterford was published in 2008.
The species accounts give a summary of the status, ecology, and distribution of 1,530 taxa recorded since 1746.

Ireland's Wild Orchids – a field guide by Brendan Sayers and Susan Sex,
(see details here...) was published in 2008. Within 5 months a
second book, The Orchids of Ireland
by Tom Curtis and Robert Thompson was published in 2009.

John Feehan’sThe Wildflowers of Offaly (Offaly County Council), and Tony O’Mahony’sWildflowers of Cork City and County (Collins Press) both appeared in 2010.
The Flora of County Tyrone by Ian McNeill published by the National Museums Northern Ireland in 2010
brings the total vice-county floras published for Ireland so far to sixteen.

Wild Flowers of Ireland by Zoe Devlin, and The Wildflowers of Ireland By Carsten Krieger
and Declan Doogue each appeared in 2011. Both are superbly illustrated books. John Akeroyd, Leander Wolstenholme & Jenna Poole
published a Supplement to The Wild Plants of Sherkin, Cape Clear and adjacent Islands
of West Cork (Species new to the islands, rediscoveries
and significant extensions of known distribution.) which adds a further 35 new plants to
the flora published in 1996, alongside a remarkable number of
rediscoveries and important extensions of known local and Irish distributions.